Man guilty of first-degree murder in 2005 double stabbing

A Lehigh County judge has found Raphael Ruiz-Figueroa guilty of first-degree… (FILE PHOTO, THE MORNING…)

September 30, 2011|By Kevin Amerman, Of The Morning Call

An Allentown man who stabbed his former girlfriend and fatally slashed her mother in 2005 was ordered to serve life in prison Friday after a Lehigh County Judge found him guilty of first-degree murder.

Judge Kelly L. Banach ruled Ruiz-Figueroa had specific intent to kill when he stabbed to death Hungria Sonia Santana around 10 a.m. on July 25, 2005, in her daughter's former home at 220 N. Railroad St..

Authorities say Ruiz-Figueroa then attacked his former girlfriend, Yalibe Feliz, thrusting a kitchen knife into her heart.

Last week, Ruiz-Figueroa pleaded guilty to attempted homicide for stabbing Feliz and an open count of homicide for killing her mother. In return for Ruiz-Figueroa's plea, prosecutors no longer pursued the death penalty.

Banach held a trial this week to determine if Ruiz-Figueroa was guilty of murder in the first, second or third degree or if he committed voluntary manslaughter.

Much of the testimony throughout the week came from dueling mental health experts. Psychologists for the prosecution said there's no evidence that Ruiz-Figueroa — who spent months in a mental health ward following his 2008 arrest — had mental issues that prevented him from knowing what he was doing during the stabbings. But Ruiz-Figueroa's attorney, public defender James Nechin, presented experts who said the killer has brain damage and a diminished capacity to form an intent to kill.

Banach said Ruiz-Figueroa's motives were clear.

"There's no question in my mind you had the capacity in July 2005 to form specific intent to kill and that that was your intention," the judge told Ruiz-Figueroa, who stared downward throughout most of Friday's hearing and continuously bobbed his head, sometimes abruptly stopping and popping his head up.

Banach tacked a sentence of 20 to 40 years onto the life sentence for attempting to kill Feliz.

According to Senior Deputy District Attorney Tonya Tharp:

Ruiz-Figueroa and Feliz were involved in an abusive relationship which caused Feliz to get a protection from abuse order against Ruiz-Figueroa. Ruiz-Figueroa, who allegedly was behind on child support payments for the son he has with Feliz, became jealous after seeing Feliz with another man the day before the killings.

Friends and acquaintances of the killer told authorities Ruiz-Figueroa thought Feliz was "playing him" by dating another man and said if he found out it was true he'd "kill her."

Ruiz-Figueroa showed up at Feliz's home the day of the killings, saying he wanted to see his son. Feliz wasn't home, but her mother, who lived two blocks away, was there. Santana asked if Ruiz-Figueroa had any support money and when he said "no" she told him to leave. Ruiz-Figueroa instead entered the home through the basement and talked to his child. He claims Santana then approached him with a knife. He said he then took the knife and stabbed her.

Tharp said Ruiz-Figueroa stabbed Santana in the arms, then in the chest, puncturing her lung.

"The blow was fatal, but the defendant didn't stop there," Tharp said, noting he again stabbed Santana in the abdomen as she lay dying.

When Feliz returned home, Tharp said Ruiz-Figueroa attacked her from behind and kept stabbing her as she begged for her life.

Tharp said Feliz, then 28, was stabbed in the heart but managed to stagger across the street, where someone called 911. She was taken to Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest for "life-saving treatment," Tharp said. Santana, 44, was found dead in the home.

Ruiz-Figueroa was on the run for more than three years before being nabbed in New York in August 2008. After his arrest, he spent seven months in Norristown State Hospital, a long-term psychiatric facility that has wards for inmates.

Shackled, handcuffed and wearing a blue prison jump suit, Ruiz-Figueroa briefly apologized to his victims through a Spanish-speaking interpreter.

"Because of your jealousy, your selfishness and perhaps years of drug use, you took an innocent person's life and all you could say was, 'Sorry?'" Banach asked.